End of Life Companionship

We all aim for a meaningful life which is well lived.

For those at the end of their lives, the aim is to experience a time which continues that meaning.

Companionship to the dying is about bringing love, support, and peace, and helping to relieve fear and pain.​

What we need is a guide who helps us to discover more of who we are. I encourage those who work with me to give themselves permission to work on themselves – their lives and their dreams.

My role

I am a non-medical holistic companion walking alongside people coming to the end of their lives, their families, and those who are important to them.

My work includes:

• Ensuring the dying person feels loved and supported.• Honouring their religious beliefs or lack of them, and honouring their beliefs about life, death, and an after-life.• Listening and providing compassionate non-medical care.• Serving the dying person without trying to ‘fix’ them.• Using gentle complementary therapies to ease pain and anxiety.• Providing support and comfort to loved ones.

How I approach my companionship

My approach is guided by Hermione Elliot, the Founder of the Living Well Dying Well Foundation, and grounded in a person-centred approach to the role.I am also inspired by this quote from Atul Gawande's book Being Mortal.

“Sometimes we can offer a cure, sometimes only a salve, sometimes not even that. But whatever we can offer, our interventions and the risks and sacrifices they entail, are justified only if they serve the larger aims of a person’s life. When we forget that, the suffering we inflict can be barbaric. When we remember it, the good we can do can be breath-taking.”

Atul GawandeAuthor, Being Mortal

Do you need support, companionship, and guidance during your final years, months, and days, or you want that for your loved one?